This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..

Friday, October 17, 2014

This
first full length record by the Norwegian band, Black Moon Circle (BMC), and it
is a psychedelic rock monster! Full of cool songs and moods, massive riffs,
spaced out sounds and a killer drummer and bass player that just groove, while
guitarist Vemund, plays whatever the hell he feels like and rocks like a
MF… Machine
on the Hill is a 9½ monster track that starts slowly with just some loud
drums (sounds really awesome like he is playing in the living room if you have
it cranked loud!) and spacey guitar parts as it slowly builds up. The bridge
has a super catchy chorus. The band hits overdrive and this track has a great
jammed out ending. Jack’s Cold Sweat has a heavier riff and more intense singing from
Øyvin as the band reaches just the peak, where Vemund can take the guitar to
the skies.. The band is complimented by Dr. Space adding some far out space
sounds in the background to take you out into orbit! “Step into the afterworld,
follow the others into the void, take the step on the golden tongue, follow the
dream forevermore….” Supernova slows things down and starts
off with some heavy bass drones with a bit of delay on it as Per slowly brings
the drums in. Vemund takes his time to settle into the riff of choice for
taking you on the journey. Øyvin sings with a melodic, slowly sung vocal with a
dreamy character through most of the drifiting track that lasts about 6 mins
and finishes side A. Dragon starts off with some acoustic
guitar and a bit of other guitar before the drums come in around 2½ mins and
but you have to be patient for the arrival of the Dragon….. then you will feel the dragon rising and the
track just becomes a monster and again Dr. Space makes another appearance around
5½ mins. Vemund plays some really intense guitar parts as the whole sound
becomes a huge psychedelic trip lasting 3 more minutes. Phew…. Andromeda is a 15min track that closes
the album and has many moods and starts off a bit like a Gov’t Mule song, with
its slow melodic guitar build up before the heavy riff kicks in after the 1st
long vocal section. Around 5½mins, the band is ready to jam now and Øyvin steps
up the bass intensity and Per as well and then it is Vemund’s turn to deliver space
guitar. Around 10mins Vemund has really let loose with some great solos as the
whole band just lifts the track to another level around 11½ mins when Vemund
kicks in with another space guitar effect and Øyvin starts killing it on the
bass.. Wow.. what a fucking jam… Look
out early next year for the Studio Jams Vol 1!

This
is a pretty unique and ambitious release. 10 one sided flexi-discs, 10
postcards, poster, and CD in a unique clamshell box…… Flexi discs never really
had such great fidelity and are not known for being able to be played many
times (maybe that’s why you really need the CD this time!). Anyway, it is a
cool idea and it will cost you 27£ plus shipping if you want to own one of the
700 that will be produced. It features 10 somewhat obscure and some of the most
popular bands from the Fruits de Mer catalog including Astralasia, The luck of
Eden, The Thanes, Schizo Fun Addit, Crystal Jacqueline, The Crawlin Hex (a new
band from Fred from Earthling Society), The Loons, The Past Tense, The Blue
giant Zeta Puppies and Icarus Peel. All the bands perform cover songs of mostly
pretty obscure bands from the 60s like the Hippies, Dragonfly, The Sorrows,
Laurie Johnson, Count Five, Calico Wall, the Pretty things, Brainticket, Satori and Donavan. Alot of very cool versions. I was impressed.

I am not really that into soundtrack albums but this one sounded pretty damn cool
and it is! The band is only a three piece with bass, drums, keyboards and
samples but they make the most of it. The music is dark, moody, and with great
atmospheres. Side A starts with the title track and then Return of the Blind
Dead. A very nice rich sound and a great use of bells, strange sounds as the
drums and bass keep it doomy. The Ghost Galleon starts side B off and features
a lot of Mellotron. When the drums and bass kick in, the keyboards and samples
get really spaced out. Quite cool stuff. Night of the Seagulls is the last
track and again features mellotron to help create the creepy atmosphere. I guess this album is about 30mins
of music max but I enjoyed it a lot. I for sure want to see the movie now!

This
is a fairly new project featuring Mike from BONG on guitars, Sam Booth- Drums,
and Jerome Smith on bass. They started putting stuff up on bandcamp back in
2013 and released their debut on Burning World Records called Sick on my
Journey last August. I did not manage to hear that record but the sample I
heard of this one made me want to buy it.
The album features 5 tracks over the two sides of brain damaging music. Side
A opens with Dead in the Temple and gives you the first sonic glimpse. The
sound of the record is such that you feel like these three guys just smoked a
big joint or bong, grabbed the instruments and cranked up the volume in a large
room with a lot of reverb and just set forth to another universe with the drums
and bass keeping a simple stoned groove while Mike just plays totally
psychedelic, fuzzy, distorted guitar and multi-layered at one point…. Pretty
mindblowing opening track. Strung out beyond the Rim, starts a bit slower but
it has a cool guitar riff that is repeated over and over until you are
thoroughly hypnotized. Blue at Noon starts the side B and the aural assault of
the mind kicks in straight away, with hardly a warning, with air raid siren
like guitar, dropping bombs in the mind. It eventually becomes a bit less
intense and then Mike does some more double layering of the spaced out heavy
fuzz guitar. Void in Aimless Flight and Unbroken Reign of the Violent Yagyu end
side B in a stoned haze of fuzz… I
do not recommend cranking this one up in the headphones as you will be left
with a totally blasted and shattered mind… Phew….. advice from the Doctor.

This
is a really fantastic split 7” with the band Superfjord and Earthling Society.
Superfjord from Finland start things off with a super cool version of A Love
Supreme (John Coltrane)! After a super
spacey and far out intro, the band tries to enter into the main theme of the
song but the pull of the drugs just keeps the music way to psychedelic until
the vocals kick in. Super cool version and unlike any I have ever heard.
Earthling Society take on Journey in Satchidananda (Alice Coltrane) is also out
there on the other side of the universe trying to find its way back to earth,
where the track was originally born….. What would John and Alice of thought?? Amazing!

It
has been some years since I have seen Brant play. Last time he played at
Roadburn, we could not get into the Midi Hall and missed his show… There was a
really good crowd for a Weds night. I hung out with the guys from Wonderland
and Lone and an old friend, Morten Jensen and his wife also. Some of the
Roadburn gang (Nils, Tom, Magnus, Sven) were coming later.

A
new young Danish band called South, opened the show. They are a 5 piece band
from Nørrebro in Copenhagen and play a pretty aggressive high energy stoner
rock, heavy rock (metal) music. The drummer and bass player had a really great
groove and the two guitar players whipped up a furry with some really cool
riffs. The female lead singer had a pretty cool voice for their style and good
stage presence. The 2nd songs was a slow and doomy one (Nils would
have liked it!). The 3rd song also started with a heavy bass line
and quite slow and heavy but it really built up in a cool way. Both guitar
players play solos but they have quite different styles: one a more traditional
heavy metal style lead work , the guy with the SG, a more searching
experimenting style, perhaps he is not as confident or competent as a lead
guitarist yet. The 2nd to last song was a really fast number and
also short. The final number was also a fast rock and roll number and hard to
distinguish from the previous. This was only their 2nd
show ever, so I thought they did pretty well but some of their songs are too
much a like but you can say that about Brant as well! They played 6 songs in
about 35mins.

Brant
did not hit the stage until 23, which is too fucking late on a week night. I
really wanted to see him though. He started off with too long stoned out jammy
versions of some of his older tracks starting off with Low Desert Punk. He is more or less playing the same set every
night on this tour from what I can see on the internet (below is a guess). I was really surprised
how hard rocking and cool the new songs were. I think the new record will be
really promising. I was really sad that he did not play anything from Gods and
Goddesses as this is my favourite BB record….
Anyway, most of the songs were played pretty straight up but a few were
stretched out. The new lead guitar player was pretty cool and damn, the
drummer, he pounded the drums and was awesome. He had a killer band for sure..
It was a fun show. I think he played about 90mins.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

IT has been many years since the Norwegian project lead by Sigurd, have made a new record. The last works were released on the Sulatron label back in 2007. Sigurd plays most of the instruments himself but here is the list of the other folks that helped him realize this very cool album: Halvor William Sanden on drums, friends from Seid (Burt Rocket, Jürgen Kosmos and now ex-Seid member Organ Morgan), Lars Fredrik Frøislie (Wobbler), Sven Arne Skarvik and Ingrid Velle (Love Revolt), Allessandro Elide (Manifest/Hoist) and Erlend Naalsund (Asiago). The CD starts off with the long multipart Leviathan Suite and a long spacey intro before the main musical theme kicks in. This is a beautiful floating track with a lot of moods, mellotron and female vocals. The main long mid-section is a great synthesizer solo and then they return to the main vocal theme and melody again. At about 12½ mins it really picks up with a more intense guitar line and a organ solo. Great track. The Colour Out of Space is next and is a more uptempo track but also strong on the melodic progressive spacey vibe as well. This like most of the record is instrumental and primarily features a lot of synthesizer solos and much fewer guitar solos. There is some great synthesizer work on this track. Surya, starts off with a harpsichord and then moves into the direction of soundtrack music for Dario Argento but perhaps a bit more happy but also a bit haunting. Lovely short track. Distant Star is a very spacey track with some nice slide guitar work and some melodies that remind me a lot of SEID. The Mountains of Madness sounds a lot like songs that preceded it and is the first track to features male lead vocals (Burt?). Some of the guitar work is very David Gilmour inspired. The CD/LP ends with another long track called R’Lyeh, which is split into multiple parts. This has some of the most dramatic music on the LP hidden in this piece. If you like really melodic, floating space progressive rock with a lot of synthesizers, you should enjoy this a lot. If you have not figured out this record is very much inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft!

Full Track Listing: LEVIATHAN SUITE- The Traveller, part I, The Sailors, part I, In Limbo at 5000 Fathoms, Maybe they Sailed out too far?, Between Scylla and Charybdis, The Sailors, part II, Interstellar Foe, THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE, SURYA, DISTANT STAR, THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, R’LYEH- The Elder Ones, 47°9 S 126°43 W, Every Man For Himself, In the Wake of Cthulhu, The Traveller, part IILeviathan Promo Video Teaser

Friday, October 10, 2014

Space
Invaders is a really cool German Space rock band who do a lot of improvising
and jamming live. This is their 2nd release and was recorded at the
Psychedelic network Festival in Würzburg in Nov 2013, where Nik Turner played
with nearly every band at the festival. Side A of the vinyl starts off with a
pretty cool version of Sonic Attack! Nik
also then sings lead on the old ICU track called Space Invaders. Spicy
Spider features some nice sax rom Nik as a good bass groove drives the track
forward and some of the guitar line remains pretty melodic and the synths
pretty spacey. I like the sort of Spanish inspired guitar solo as well as Nik
switches to flute. See the video below. Drums ‘n’ Space is a improve where the band search out in
space for a cool place to go while Nik plays in his own little universe.. Flip
the record over for the 10min track, Stardust. This is simply a very cool piece
of space rock with some nice flute by Nik. Mike plays some intense guitar when
the track really gets speeding along and some far out space sounds are thrown
in as well. Can You? Is a 12min uptempo rocker where Nik grabs his sax for
another passionate blow! Again, the band has a great funky space groove going
on that just really hooked me. Fucking cool stuff guys… Nik played with a lot
of folks at the festival and sometimes it worked and sometime it didn’t but for
sure it worked here!

The Welsh psychedelic space rock
band, Sendelica has released their first live album and it is fantastic. It was recorded at last year’s successful Crabstock Festival in Wales and released now on the Fruits de Mer
offshoot label called Friends of Fish! The set features a range of tracks
including some cool borrowed themes from bands like Pink Floyd and Funkadelic
with such track as Set the controls for the heart of the Buddha and Return of
the Maggot Brain. I have never seen this band and hate to admit, they are one
band that has sort of just passed me by as I don’t own a single one of their
records but I have heard them streaming while at work. This one I have been
spinning a lot on the CD player and it is such a cool record and I hope to
catch the band live. Enjoy this track from youtube below from the record..

I
only caught about half of this really cool concert due to other bands I had not
seen before were playing that I really wanted to see. It is great that most of
the concert is represented here in 5 pieces of music spread over 3 sides of
vinyl. Sulpur valley Dawn (maybe this
inspired the album over??) starts things off and you really feel like you are
there in the audience waiting for it to all start as the band slowly get things
going and you can hear the audience chatting before Mattias brings in the first
guitar lines and the psychedelic trip begins! About 4mins the drums and bass
really kick in and off we go with some great psychedelic guitar phrasing and
wah guitar that flows so effortlessly over the cool bass lines of Ronny. At
11mins Nicklas puts down his guitar and switches over to the digital mellotron
for a nice space change. The end is very intense with Ronny and drummer Daniel,
really killing it.. Side 2 starts with Ancient Caravan, an mystical Eastern
inspired piece that slowly grows into something else. There is an amazing
guitar solo by Mattias at the end of this track when Nicklas reverts back to
the mellotron for some haunting voice like sounds. Very cool.. The Mountain
Trail features some really nice slide guitar continues a bit the mood of the
haunting Eastern feel but a bit more spacey. It brings back great memories. The
opening track on Side 3, further up the Mountain Trail features some truly
amazing melodic guitar playing from Mathias. What a wonderful track. Into the
Cosmic Halo closes out the record in a hard rocking manner. Excellent album. The
bands new studio album is coming out on Oct 14th as well. I will try
to review that as well.

Hypnos
is a young new five piece Swedish band playing NWOBHM style music mixed with
that 70s influence that bands like Witchcraft and Graveyard took to heart. The
bio says it is boogie rock but it is a bit more heavy metal that 70s hard rock
that so many Swedish band excel at. Lots of songs about good and evil and a
great rocking album. The CD has 8 tracks and starts off with the fast paced
Hands of Evil. This melodic rocker also reminds me of Horizont as well, both
with the style of singing and harmony guitars. Some great parts that also will
remind you of Thin Lizzy, perhaps and cool changes in this track. A good opener
Hypnos is a more laid back track in the bluesy way the guitar lines start
things off and then it kicks in with full force and some powerful vocals and a
great guitar solo section. Nightmares slows things down a lot to start with a
Graveyard like vocal style but then the track really picks up. This band has a
lot more lead guitar than Graveyard or Witchcraft, which is really nice. Fantastic
song. Moving too Fast does indeed speed things up to a quick boogie rock track
and also highlighting the excellent singing of Philip. The Mountain is a
another fast one with a lot of harmony guitar parts over the nearly 6min track.
Invaders really took me back to the early 80s NWOBHM bands that were more 70s
hard rock inspired… Some great guitar solos in this track and a great sense of
vocals phrasing and delivery. Abracassus again has this dual guitar phrasing in
a track that really bounces along with a nice groove and some intense singing
ala Ian Gillan! How to handle Madness closes this record and is a very fast
song and one I can see the audience really digging live. A great debut… Good
work guys..

Electric
Moon’s first two records that were originally released on the Nasoni Records
label are now being re-released. These have long been sought after and out of print. This is a new
edition in 500 copies in a double gatefold. It is also released as a 2CD set as
well with both complete albums. It features new artwork, with the original
artwork is featured on the inside of the gatefold.
I have both the original records but this is nice for the fans who want
to hear where this band started off at. While the band have not deviated so far
from their roots over like 20 records now, this stuff was a more composed and
Dave was playing organ and both he and Lulu were also experimenting with some
voices, where as the current line up goes for all improvised and heavy psych
sounds to blow your brains apart……. One of Germany’s coolest heavy psych acts.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Uli
Jon Roth is one of my all-time favourite guitar players. He started out in the
Scorpions in the early 70s and then left and had a cool band called Electric
Sun in the 80s and then for the last many years has toured under his own name
playing mostly his own music mixed with Jimi Hendrix songs. This was the 40th anniversary of
his debut with the Scorpions so he was doing primarily a set of old Scorpions
songs and mixing the sets up every night and not just doing the same Scorpions
songs every night (at least that is what I read in an interview).

Sue
and I walked down to the club about 19:30 and were lucky enough to run into a
guy selling two tickets for half price so that was a great start. We later met
up with Nils, Sven, Magnus and Finn, which was really nice. It was a mostly
older crowd. At 20:15, the opening band, which made up most of Uli’s backing
band as well played first. They played about a 45min set of very complicated
progressive rock with a pretty hard edge at times but also the sort of high
pitched vocal styling’s of the neo-prong bands from the UK in the 80s. Amazing
musicians. I was really blown away by the keyboard player and the guitarist who
sang most of the lead vocals, was also great but did not show is true form
until much later in their set. I filmed one track which was something totally
new that they had not recorded yet. They
were not bad..

We went outside for some air on
this very warm evening for October while they changed some things on the stage.
The band hit the stage at 21:30 and would play for about 2hrs. It was a totally different band compared to when he last played here. They opened with
All Night Long, the opening track from Tokyo Tapes. The concert was mix of the
more popular Scorpions songs like Pictured Life, We burn the Sky, Dark Lady
(last song before the encore), In Trance and more obscure songs like I’ve got
to be Free (which was quite jammed out and all members has short solos), The
Sails of Charon, where Uli did an amazing solo. Others they played were Catch
your train, Longing for Fire, Fly to the Rainbow and Drifting Sun. The encore
started off with Polar Nights and then he invited a 12 year old Swedish girl
out who he said, her band had covered one of his songs and they played Hellcat with her on drums. She rocked and was great! See the video by Mathias. Wow.. Next we got some Hendrix
tracks and the show ended with a cool version of All along the Watchtower.

He
had a great band but I am puzzled by why they play the songs so fast. It is
like a speed metal version of the Scorpions and there are three amazing guitar
players who each on their own were really keeping up with Uli and totally
ripping it up at times with triple harmony guitars. The keyboard guy was
totally pointless to have except that he did a lot of the singing with the
guitar player from Crystal Breed who, did the lead vocals. You could not hear
the keyboards at all where we stood in front on Uli half way back and the
Scorpions never had keyboards! Anyway,
I wish they would slow the songs down to the old speed but I think it has to do
with Uli can play his old solos twice as fast today as he did back in the old
days and it fits better if the songs are also faster but they just don’t sound
right to me, who has heard the old Scorpions records 100s of times… Anyway, always a pleasure to see Uli play
that guitar and hear these classic songs.. Great night…

About Me

I am a research scientist doing Diabetes research and I do music journalism on the side and have been writing about music for 28 years now. I also lead an all improvised psychedelic space rock band called the Øresund Space Collective. I also am an avid collector of music.